Speeches by Craft.

“I rise to speak in opposition to the Bill. Today, we are voting not on the principle of assisted dying, but on a piece of legislation. We do not exist in a vacuum; what happens in this House has real-world consequences. I am all too aware of how unequal our society, our medical system and our institutions are in their …”

“I am afraid I will make progress, but I thank her for her interruption. [Laughter.] Her intervention, my apologies. We have been told that there are panels that will provide a safeguard and take into account all of someone’s circumstances, and whether they have capacity. However, those panels may in exceptional circums…”

“Will the hon. Lady give way on that point?”

“I agree on the notion of a right; where we vary is that I think that the Bill as written, and Government amendments 32 and 33, enshrine the notion of a right without it having to be spelled out as such. Local variation includes localised populations, such as those from marginalised communities. We might consider differ…”

“I would welcome the hon. Lady’s thoughts on where clause 45 or the Government’s amendments allow for selective provision. My understanding is that they place an onus on mental health commissioners to make sure that all those who are deemed appropriate to be in receipt of an ACD should be given the ability to make one. …”

“Having looked at new clause 21, I have a rather large concern about consent. The hon. Lady is setting out what the integrated care board would have a duty to do, including giving information about a “person’s condition and recovery” to “the family or carers of the person discharged”. I have a significant concern that t…”

“I rise to speak briefly to clause 45, Government amendments 32 and 33, Lib Dem amendment 18 and Opposition amendment 46. I am very supportive of clause 45. The ability to make an advance choice document is incredibly important to people who may come under the scope of the 1983 Act and be subject to detention under ment…”

“Would you support mandatory training on cultural competency?”

“Organisations that have given evidence to this Committee, including the previous panel, have called for mandatory training on cultural competency. Indeed, when I asked this question to the previous panel, they were fairly unanimous in their response about whether that would go some way to addressing the concerns around…”

“I do not think the previous panel would disagree with that—I do not want to put words in their mouths; they are still in the room—but I think they would say that, at the moment, the level of cultural competency training for people who work in the whole maternal space is so very low, and that is having an impact across …”

“Would you find it helpful to be able to not just collect end point data, so maternal outcomes, but also things along the way? Janet has spoken at length about that kind of experience, interaction, being treated and consistency of care. Would it be helpful to be able to measure whether women are accessing this along the…”

“Sylvia, I understand that the trust that you work with is already doing quite a lot of work to improve staff’s knowledge around cultural competency and supporting their knowledge and confidence to support black women throughout their pregnancy. Is there anything that is working particularly well and how has that been a…”

“Is there anything that is working particularly well and how is that being adopted and taken up?”

“Janet, this is to you. My apologies for being a bit late this morning. I wanted to clarify what you were saying. Is there a general feeling in the profession that midwife-led, low-intervention maternal care achieves better outcomes, but black women are not necessarily accessing that in the way that they should? The pur…”

“I am trying to get to the nub of low intervention in maternity care. That midwife one tends to have slightly better outcomes. Could the fact that black women are currently prevented from accessing that as fully as they should be something that is driving poor outcomes?”

“I imagine that it has knock-on effects. You may see the impact on the child’s life chances. It could be endless, really.”

“Professor Shehata, how well are medical professionals currently supported to identify medical conditions such as jaundice or rashes in black women and babies?”

“We have touched on it quite a lot already, but I wanted to look a little more at training. Specifically, would you support cultural competency training becoming mandatory? Are there moves to make it that way?”

“Sylvia, you said that it should not just be a tick box but actually immersive. Would that be something along the lines of continual professional development?”

“I am assuming that it would be across the board, so midwives, managers and senior management.”